Crisis
by TheAwesomeRobot
Summary: Bastion has made a new friend, and a dead man comes back to life. There is a new threat on the rise, though. A mercenary named Broadsword has been doing jobs for Talon and other big bad names. Zarya is connected to this man, but how? (Rated T for language. Becomes fairly OC-centric about two chapters in. Have Google Translate on hand as you read.) ON INDEFINITE HIATUS.
1. Chapter 1

_Chapter 1_

Bastion bounced as he walked down the streets of Numbani, waving to the occasional energetic child. He heard a honking behind him, and turned to see a car. He stood a bit straighter, realizing he was on the road, not the sidewalk. He gave an apologetic, "Doo-woo." And walked back onto the sidewalk.

"Help! He stole my purse!" A woman called out, and Bastion quickly turned to see an Omnic running away from a panicked woman. Bastion took off after the 'bot, his gun at the ready. He didn't want to injure the criminal, but he would if necessary. He fired a single shot, quickly gaining. The bullet slammed into the rouge Omnic's leg, shattering a support rod and causing the machine to stumble heavily. The pieces of metal went everywhere, and Bastion beeped sheepishly as people began to yell at him.

The running Omnic gave up the chase, grabbing a nearby child and pulling a knife. "Don't get any closer! I'll slit the kid's throat!"

A large, quadrupedal Omnic stomped up to the rogue machine, casting a large shadow. Purple glow-in-the-dark paint lit up on the criminal's face.

Bastion put several of his noises together to say what sounded like, "Los Muertos…" Using his new voice box a bit.

"You are going against code 2-15." The newcomer said, their feminine voice intimidating. Bastion looked to the Omnic, seeing two red eyes and a yellow steel face. There was small text along one of the long horns, reading 'OR-15a'

At the presence of this 'OR-15a', the member of Los Muertos dropped the knife and the purse, stumbled to his feet, and ran off. The new Omnic patted the child on the head, turning to Bastion. "Doo-doo?" Bastion beeped.

"You are violating code 1-1. Any Bastion units found active after the Crisis are to be shut down and dismantled." The centaur-like robot began stomping toward Bastion. As the frightened Bastion unit began to walk backwards, some bits of moss began to fall off.

A girl ran up. "Orisa! No! He is with Overwatch!"

"Or-i-sa?" Bastion chirped, looking at the quadrupedal Omnic.

"I apologize." The girl said quickly. "She didn't know. I am the creator of this here robot. Efi Oladele." The girl held out her hand.

Bastion carefully took it, shaking her hand lightly as to not injure Efi accidentally. "Bas-ti-on." Bastion beeped.

"Hello, Bastion." Efi said with a smile.

Bastion let out a series of beeps and whirrs, only resulting in Efi's confusion.

"…What?" She asked.

"Come with me?" Bastion beeped.

"Where?"

"Gib-ral-tar." Bastion beeped slowly.

"Gibraltar? Where is that?"

"Ov-er-watch" The friendly robot chirped. "Friends." He continued.

Efi tilted her head slightly. "Okay. Sure!"

(][)

The large hangar doors opened, and Bastion let out a happy chirp when he saw the doors sliding apart to allow entry.

"Wow…" Efi gasped. "It's amazing… Wait, is that the Slipstream?!" She pointed at a large, sleek plane with faded lettering on the side. "I thought you guys lost it."

Bastion chirped sheepishly, putting a hand behind his head. "Re-co-ver…"

Efi took notice of the heavily dented and twisted door, which was hanging open. She leapt up, grabbing the ledge and beginning to walk inside. "Woah! I thought there was only one chronal accelerator!"

"They aren't that hard to make." A deep, jovial voice explained, revealing itself to be Winston. The gorilla bounded up next to Bastion, looking up at the enormous machine. "They just require patience." He looked back to the plane.

Efi pressed herself up against one of the windows, waving to Bastion through the thick glass.

Bastion waved back, and noticed the thin metal landing gear that was propping the plane up, was beginning to crush. The plane began to fall towards Bastion, and the Omnic let out a panicked beep. Bastion put out a hand, holding up the plane, just barely. Orisa marched over, helping to hold the vehicle steady while Winston carefully climbed in to rescue Efi.

The hyper-intelligent gorilla came out a moment later, the young girl curled up in Winston's arms.

"You alright luv's?" A voice called out. Tracer dashed up to Bastion. "Oh dear… I'll get Jack." She blinked off to find the Strike Commander. Winston set Efi down, and the moment the girl was placed on the cold tile, Orisa let go of the plane and walked over to her creator, leaving Bastion to hold up the massive vehicle. The E54 unit got onto his knees and propped the plane up on his machine gun barrel, still holding it up with his hand and rifle.

He shot Orisa a questioning look, never one for anger. The OR-15 model didn't take notice of this, only protecting Efi.

Bastion's new optic cover came down at a slant, showing his confusion. He pushed the plane up a bit, becoming a bit fatigued. The only flaw in the Bastion units was their ability to become fatigued. Apart from that, they were the ultimate fighting machines.

"ORISA!" He called out, using his actual voice box fully for a moment. The mentioned Omnic looked to him.

"What, E54?"

"Help me?" He used his voice box again. His voice was high pitched, like a child's.

Orisa stood up straighter. "PROTOCOL 167 ENGAGED; PROTECT CREATOR. TAGRET; BASTION UNIT E54." She spoke out in a mechanical, forced voice. Her eyes turned red, and she began to march toward Bastion, her arm turning into a high-tech fusion driver.

"Stop right there." A gruff voice spoke out. In an instant, Soldier: 76 had his pulse rifle against the back of Orisa's head, standing on her back. "That's our Bastion unit." He turned to Bastion. "You alright?"

Bastion nodded, his voice box recharging. Orisa's eyes went back to normal. "Protocol disengaged." She announced, her hand returning to normal.

"Bastion, what did you do to the Slipstream?" 76 asked.

Bastion shrugged. "Landing gear…" He made a crushing motion with his hand and rifle, supporting the fallen vehicle with his machine gun temporarily.

"What made that happen?" Soldier leapt off the back of Orisa, resting his rifle on his shoulder.

Bastion sheepishly pointed to Efi as she began to stir. "Got in plane."

"Why did you let her get in it?" 76 asked, his eyes narrowing under the mask.

"Thought was safe." Bastion responded in broken English, his voice box sputtering and dying.

76 glared at Bastion. "Never assume something like that is safe."

Bastion nodded, ashamed. the servos in his neck whirred slightly as he did so.

 **A/N:**

 **So I saw another OW story, and it inspired me to make this! It wasn't written the best, but it wasn't a bad plot. If you have any constructive criticism please let me know how I can make this better!**


	2. Chapter 2

**(EDITED)** _  
Chapter 2_

Efi was fine apart from some bruises. Bastion made sure to protect her whenever Orisa wasn't scaring him off. Today was different, however, as Bastion had to go on a mission. One neither him nor the jovial Crusader next to him wanted to go on. Talon was attacking the ruins of Eichenwalde, and they had to protect the castle, as the group was attempting to steal the suit of Balderich von Adler, the leader of the Crusaders. Why they wanted the suit, Overwatch didn't know.

The team filed out of the dropship, and Bastion immediately disappeared. Reinhardt snuck by the talon agents working on a rocket-powered battering ram, and walked into the main room of the Eichenwalde castle. He pulled off his helmet, kneeling at the throne.

"Balderich von Adler… He was born here, and he died here… an armor-piercing round to the heart." Reinhardt lamented, placing a hand over his chest.

"Look, it's that Wilhelm guy." A voice whispered. Reinhardt stood, lifting his hammer and gazing around for the speaker. There were two Talon agents by the door, and the large wooden gate was being smashed open.

"Hammer… DOWN!" He slammed his hammer into the earth, causing a great rumble to pass through the floor, and knocking the Talon agents to the ground. The wooden gate smashed open, sending splinters everywhere.

He heard a small noise from behind him, and saw Balderich's mossy armor rising up. The hand reached over for its hammer. "Get down!" It yelled to Reinhardt, in an old, heavily accented voice. It snatched up the hammer, throwing it at the battering ram in a boomerang fashion. "Wunderbar!" It called out in German as it watched the hammer knock all the Talon agents off the battering ram. "What are you doing, Wilhelm?! Go! Be a Crusader!"

If Balderich was truly still alive, the man must have been around eighty years of age, maybe in his nineties. Reinhardt, absolutely dumbfounded, followed the command, running onto the battering ram and slamming his hammer onto the rocket of the ram, and slowly disabling its moving capabilities altogether.

Talon, knowing their plan had been foiled, booked it as fast as they could back to their dropship, and left very quickly.

The Balderich suit walked into the open, brushing moss off of himself. He lifted his hammer, tapping it on the ground to get the dust and dirt off. "Look at you! You are older than I am!" Balderich laughed in a heavy accent. "Meine, wie du geworden bist. You were but a small cub when I began training you, and now you are a lion!"

"You… should be dead…" Reinhardt whispered.

"Ah, but here is the thing, mein Junge. When you knelt by my throne- actually, I was going to make something up but I decided, nun, was zum Teufel. When your companion, the angel woman, called out 'Heroes never die', my spirit awoke, and… here I am! Still partially dead, so…" Balderich explained,

"Your spirit would have dissipated by now…" Reinhardt still would not believe it.

"Ah, a Crusader's soul is too strong! Now, we must find the others! Graham… That's the only name I remember…" He muttered the last bit. "Death makes your memory ein bisschen defekt."

"Mein Gott!" Reinhardt whispered, placing a hand on his superior's shoulder, looking up at the blue glowing eyes in Balderich's helmet. "It has been so long, Meister."

"I know, Auszubildender." Balderich responded. "But, there is no need for sappy reunion, Wilhelm! We are brothers in arms once again!"

(][)

He placed two fingers on the commlink in his ear. "Got eyes on the target. What do you want next?"

The person on the other end of the line gave a laugh. A feminine, Mexican-accented voice spoke. "Follow her. Don't let Talon get it."

"Got it. Following the target, Sombra." He removed his fingers from the commlink. He hefted the heavy blade in his hand onto his shoulder, the padding there protecting his body from the weight of the sword. He leapt onto the concrete ground below, slowly following his target.

"I know you are there." A heavily Russian accented voice spoke, and the target turned.

"Hello, Aleksandra. Been a long time." He wiggled his fingers over the handle of his sword, the joints letting off small whirring noises. "Got a new arm. Robotic. Figured you would hate it though." As he talked, a slight Russian accent began to appear, though it was barely noticeable, and very faded.

"Who are you? I don't recall your voice." She frowned.

He frowned at the weightlifter in front of him. He was slightly more muscular than the average person, but nothing like Zarya.

His arm was colored a dark grey, as to blend in with the shadows. His sharp, ice-blue eyes peered out of the darkness of his hood. He wore a dark grey hooded jacket over a black t-shirt. He had a large pad on his right shoulder to rest his sword on. He had a large sheath across his back.

"Leave me alone. I do not wish to talk to you, whoever you are." Zarya turned her back on him, walking away.

"You got a thing that Talon wants, y'know!" He called out at her, putting his blade in its sheath.

Zarya ignored him, continuing to walk away. He sighed, pressing a small button on the side of his wrist, and a compartment opened in his palm, shooting out a small sphere. It landed at Zarya's feet, immediately expanding into a net. The net bound Zarya's arms and legs. He walked up to Zarya's writhing body. He knelt by her, looking at the tiny needles puncturing her skin and injecting a sleeping poison.

He grabbed the necklace around her neck, taking it off with a sharp tug. The bead string broke, and he pulled the small ivory ornament off of the string, shoving it in his pocket. The small ornament was shaped like a pearl, only about two inches in diameter, made of elephant tusk.

"My employer wants this. Sorry." He gave a two-fingered wave. He pressed another button on his arm, and a translocator shot out of his palm, sticking to a shadow in the sky. He disappeared in a flash of dark blue.

 **A/N:**

 **Hey! I just wanna say two things now; I do not know these languages, and would gladly welcome any better translations. I just use Google Translate. Second thing; I do not own Overwatch.  
**


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter 3_

He handed the pearl-shaped ivory to Sombra, his hood still over his head. "Thanks, Broadsword. You saved me tons of work, amigo." Sombra thanked him.

"My pay?" He asked, holding out his mechanical hand.

Sombra sighed, reaching into her pocket, and pulling out a handful of gold credits. She dropped them into his open palm, and he opened his jacket, shoving the credits into a hidden pocket. "Damn, you charge a lot, amigo."

"My supplies ain't cheap, nor is my time." Broadsword responded, pulling down his hood. It revealed two ice-blue shapes floating in a cloud of dark mist.

Sombra shivered, pulling up some holo-screens. "You remind me of Gabe, y'know?" The screens showed many images of a ghostly, shadow-like cloud, oftentimes with a skull mask.

"I was there, remember? I hit the button." Broadsword muttered. He opened his jacket enough to reveal the Blackwatch logo on the inside of the jacket. He began walking away. "That better not end up in the hands of Talon." He leapt out of the dropship, leaving behind a small sphere spinning on the ground. It expanded into a net, wrapping around one of Sombra's guards. This guard happened to be holding the valuable object. He cried out in pain and it rolled out the door.

"Broadsword! Dammit!" Sombra yelled after the mercenary.

(][)

Broadsword handed the Omnic in front of him the ivory sphere. "Thank you, human. You are very kind."

"Yeah, yeah. Take it and don't tell your boss. Take the credit for finding it." The bounty hunter waved his metal hand in the air.

"How did you find it?" The floating machine asked.

"Aleksandra had it." Broadsword muttered.

"Aleksandra?"

"Zarya. She was wearing it. Bet she never showed you it though. It's from her mother. The Company put the target inside the ornament." He explained, beginning to walk away.

"What is your name?" The Omnic asked. The mysterious hunter thought for a moment.

"Broadsword. Nice meeting you, Tekhartha." Broadsword walked into the shadows.

(][)

Zenyatta held the pearl up for examination. "A mercenary named Broadsword gave it to me." He told Bastion.

"Chirr-chirr." Bastion whirred a bit, tilting his head aside.

"Should I show Jack?" The Tekhartha asked his recon bot friend.

Bastion nodded vigorously.

"What should you show me?" Soldier asked as he walked into the room.

Zenyatta handed him the ivory orb. "I was given this by a mercenary with the name Broadsword. I believe it is the ivory we were looking for."

76 examined the sphere for a moment, throwing it into the air and putting a bullet through it. It split, revealing a small, slightly luminescent rectangular prism. Bastion leaned over, lifting it up. He twitched for a moment before dropping the small item and his optic turning red. He quickly transferred into Configuration: Sentry.

The Strike Commander picked it up, quickly pulling the pulse cartridge out and replacing it with the glowing brick. He fired at the wall, and it made a large dent in the brick.

"There are four more of those in the world. I use one to power my arm, as I don't have your energy tech. That leaves one owned by Talon, and one being used to power particle tech by Volskaya Industries. The one being used by Volskaya isn't needed. The power generated by it will last the lifetime of the company. The one being used by Talon keeps a portal in Reaper's coat so he doesn't have to reload. The other one is lost to the world." A voice rambled on, invisible to the entities in the room.

"Who are you?" Morrison asked, aiming his pulse rifle around the room.

"Alexei 'Broadsword' Zaryanova." The hooded figure appeared, crouched in a corner of the room.

"What are these things?" 76 popped the energy cartridge out of his gun, pointing it at Alexei.

"Energy packs. They're made with an experimental, artificial system. They can power all of Volskaya's fleet for lifetimes. There are only five of them, and you know where four of them are." Alexei laughed, tossing a net bomb into the air and catching it again repeatedly.

Suddenly, his arm seized up, and the net bomb slammed into the arm. Instead of wrapping up the mechanical limb, it captured the ceiling fan, keeping it immobile, yet the small machine on the ceiling was still functional.

A figure flickered into vision, caught in the act of pulling the power source out of the mechanical arm. "Sombra!" Alexei yelled.

Sombra froze up, and Alexei took no chances, slamming his mechanical arm into the wall and forcing it back into his control. He grabbed the handle of his blade, launching a translocator into the air. It flew through a small window, and he disappeared in a flash of blue and with a glare at Sombra.

Sombra looked like a deer in headlights. The four in the room glanced to the floor, spying a small glowing sphere, with splotches of soot covering it. Sombra snatched this up, attempting to flee through the same window that Alexei tossed his translocator through.

Suddenly, the ceiling fan ripped free of its prison, flying off the ceiling and slamming into Sombra, leaving a mess of wires sticking out of the ceiling.

"You're going away for a while." Soldier proclaimed.

Before he could apprehend Sombra, she activated her cloak and ran off, stumbling slightly.

 **A/N:**

 **There isn't much to say about this chapter. Review and let me know how I can make this better!**


	4. Chapter 4

_Chapter 4_

Alexei winced as he grasped the nerve connectors between his shoulder and mechanical arm.

"Stay calm." A calm, soothing voice said, a hand gently taking Alexei's off the connectors. "It'll be easier if you let the remaining energy burn off, and it'll be less painful if you first disconnect the wires from the arm." A calm face emerged from the darkness around Alexei, soon a body followed, all skin covered apart from the face. The man gently pressed a button on Alexei's robotic arm, and the fingertips lit up.

After a moment, the lights in the fingers died, and Alexei immediately grasped the end of the connectors, but his hand was lifted from it slowly. "Stop, Alexei. I made your arm, I know how this works. I can do this."

The calm man gently grasped the end of the connectors, carefully beginning to tug on one. "Will it hurt?" Alexei asked, his voice hushed and scared.

"Not a bit." The man responded. He took a connector into his fist, yanking it out of the arm.

Alexei let out a pained yell. "Dammit, Jason, you told me it wouldn't hurt!"

"I said it wouldn't hurt a bit. I didn't say it wouldn't hurt a lot." Jason said with a smug grin, taking another in his hand and yanking it out, causing Alexei to cry out in distress once again. "One left, mon ami." Jason spoke the last two words in French. He yanked the connector out with no hesitation.

Alexei's eyes rolled back into his head, and he slumped over, his eyelids slowly closing. Jason swore, quickly pulling the connectors off of Alexei's skin, and placing two fingers right underneath the unconscious man's jaw. Alexei's pulse was pumping slowly and weakly, but it was still there. "Dammit! Stay with me, Alex!" The American yelled.

Alexei didn't respond.

XxX

 _Alexei smiled at his younger sister as he watched the ten-year-old Aleksandra prance around the room, small dolls made of straw clutched in her hands._

 _Suddenly, there was a loud bang and the roof of the building began to crumble. "Aleksandra! Go!" Alexei called out to the child. She ran up to Alexei._

 _"_ _Alexei? What?" She asked her older brother. Suddenly, a large rock began falling, and Alexei grabbed it._

 _"_ _Go! I can't hold this much longer!" Alexei yelled._

 _The young girl still refused to leave her older brother. The fourteen-year-old shoved Aleksandra past him and out of the building. Unfortunately, putting the weight of the boulder on one arm caused it to quickly give out. Alexei cried out in pain as the boulder pinned his arm to the floor, splintering his bones and mangling his arm beyond repair._

 _The sudden pain caused the teen to pass out._

XxX

"Alexei!"

His head rolled to the side.

"ALEXEI!"

His eyes opened, seeing a concerned face.

"Come back, man!"

Everything suddenly became clearer, and Alexei recognized the face as Jason's. The mercenary noticed a lack of feeling in his right arm and two fingers under his jaw. "Oh thank God." Jason sighed, removing his fingers from Alexei's neck. "You were gone for several minutes. I almost called The Company."

Alexei immediately pushed Jason away, standing up. He grasped the stump of an arm on his right side. "Don't even _think_ about calling _them_." He hissed at his friend. "Where did you put my arm?"

"I tossed it aside when I disconnected the nerve connectors. It's trash now." Jason explained, recovering from his stumble backwards.

Alexei swore, picking up the heavily dented arm and clipping it onto a thin vest he wore under his shirt. The vest was connected to most of his right side, helping him to move the arm, albeit jerkily in its current state. He opened the power compartment, and jammed a battery into it. The battery stuck out haphazardly, but caused it to work nonetheless.

He pushed a button, and the slot opened up in his palm slowly and with a loud grinding noise. A translocator was slowly shoved out of the arm. It flickered a dark blue, and shut down. It seemed that the arm was bent out of shape enough to wedge the translocators and net bombs in the limb, and render them ineffective.

"…I guess now comes the time when I ask how you found me. I know you worked with Overwatch when you made my arm. Did they make you put in some locator chip?" Alexei questioned, his arm letting off sparks occasionally.

"What do you think?" Jason muttered, snatching a previously unseen cloaking device up off the ground, revealing, through the decrepit building's windows, that it was sunrise. In the light, Alexei could see a raised, dome roof with a hole in the top. Jason pulled out a cigarette, lighting it with a small pocket lighter. He took a long drag. "The big-wigs in Blackwatch told me to implement a tracking chip, so they could keep an eye on you once you woke up from the anesthesia. You were… a bit unruly when you were first placed in the Blackwatch Division. Always runnin' off…" He took another drag.

Alexei grasped his sword with two hands, hefting it over his shoulder. "I'm finding Sombra, then I'm finding you, and you are fixing my arm." He muttered, his Russian accent peering through once again. He lifted the translocator off the ground, pressing down the top to activate it again, and he pressed a few buttons on it.

He lobbed it into the air, glaring at Jason as he disappeared in a flash of blue.

 **A/N**

 **And another one down! One thing I should say- uploads will be erratic. I have a life. Also, if you haven't read the edits to chapter 2, check it out! Review and tell me what I can improve on.**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Sombra handed the power source to the figure in front of her. "Here ya go, Gabe. Now, take it so it doesn't fry my tech."

Reaper huffed out a laugh, taking the small, glowing sphere. "How hard did you work for this?"

"Only had to chase down Broadsword and ruin his arm." Sombra said. "Not like I was battered by a ceiling fan or anything."

"Hm." Reaper muttered, flinging a gold credit at Sombra. "Now go. I have better things to attend to."

Sombra raised her hands into the air, beginning to walk backwards. "Alright, alright, I'm going."

Suddenly, a dark blue flash engulfed the area behind Sombra. "You seem to forget that you implemented a 'Home' button on my translocators." The hooded figure growled, holding a combat knife to her neck.

"Ah… Right… I put that in so I could supply you with more if you were running out… haha." Sombra laughed weakly. The home function teleported the user to Sombra. Of course, only when it wasn't Sombra herself.

Reaper crossed his arms, the power source still resting in his claw. "Why would you implement something like that, Sombra?" He asked.

"Well, you see, Gabe, I didn't have the required credits when he worked for me the first time, so I made him some translocators, and put the home button in so that he could use it to come back and get more." Sombra explained quickly, flinching as the knife got closer to her neck.

"…Why do you keep making them for him…?" Reaper asked, holding his hands up a bit.

"I… promised to." Sombra smiled sheepishly. Reyes placed a hand on his mask, shaking his head slowly.

"I… Why did I hire you again?" He asked.

Sombra simply shrugged, letting out a shriek as she was shoved aside.

Suddenly, the blade in Alexei's hand was buried in Reaper's abdomen. The ghost-like man tossed Alexei the power source, resulting in the irritated screech of Sombra. Reaper reached behind him, and was handed a robotic arm, albeit a fairly lower-tech one. It seemed to be engineered similarly to the mercenary's current arm.

Reaper gave Alexei the arm, and the former Blackwatch agent snatched it from the ghost and, knowing the current arm would be fairly useless, he swapped them out. It worked far better once the power source was placed inside.

"Here's a deal, Alex. If you manage to win a battle of wits against me, you can keep your power source and the arm if you wish. It's the same as your current one, simply not the same color and not supplied with bombs or translocators." Reaper offered, pulling the blade out of his ghostly abdomen, leaving himself unharmed.

Alexei nodded. Reaper began walking away with a vague gesture for the mercenary to follow him. Alex followed Reaper, a hand on his sword.

(][)

Reaper sat across the small table from Alexei. He slid two cups to the middle. "Most of these challenges will be deadly." He proclaimed. "They can kill you, but not me." He held up the two identical cups. "These are both water. One is laced with a lethal nerve toxin. It is tasteless, odorless, and colorless. You won't know you've ingested it until it's already in your system. I know which is which. You still have the option to leave."

"I can do this." Alex responded simply. Reaper placed the cups down, beginning to move them around.

"Tell me when to stop." Reaper muttered. He moved them around, swapping them this way and that.

The only sound filling the room was the ticking of the clock.

After a few tense moments, Alexei called out, "Stop." With no hesitation, he snatched up the cup closest to him. Reaper took the other, and the ghostly man took off his mask.

There was a scarred, mangled version of what he once looked like. He raised his glass, and began chugging his drink. Alexei drank his quickly, no hesitation. After a moment, Reaper set down his cup and put his mask back on. He stared Alexei down for a moment. "Why aren't you dead yet?" He growled.

"They subjected me to thousands of different poisons when I was there. That was one I encountered a lot." Alexei boasted, throwing the glass cup in his hand to the floor, causing it to shatter on impact. "What's next?"

Reaper growled in anger. "Come with me." He muttered, standing up and beginning to walk away.

(][)

"Sit." Reaper pointed to another chair, now in a bland room with only one chair.

Alexei sat in the chair, tugging on his hood to keep it on his head. "What is it now?"

"There is a sniper up there." Reaper pointed to a ledge close to the high ceiling. Alexei caught the glint of artificial light reflecting off a rifle. "I will ask you a riddle. If you answer wrong, you will be shot, and killed."

"Bring it on." Alexei crossed his arms.

 **"** Give it food and it will thrive; give it water and it will die. What is it?" Reaper growled, crossing his arms as well.

"What eats but can't drink? Well… hm… anything living needs water to live, but nothing abiotic needs food…" Alexei's eyes widened. "Fire. Fire needs fuel, it eats wood and other flammable things, but if it's given water it will die."

Reaper glared at the mercenary. "What can run but never walks, has a mouth but never talks, has a head but never weeps, has a bed but never sleeps?"

"I've heard this one before. A river. You need to try harder." Alexei smirked.

"What is light as a feather, but even the strongest man cannot hold it more than a few minutes?" Reaper growled.

"…Hm. This is a new one. Light as a feather… Must be lighter than a feather, or a feather, so most likely… a gas? Strongest man cannot hold it for more than…" He trailed off. "His breath." Alexei snapped his fingers.

"God dammit!" Reaper roared. "SHOOT HIM!" A bullet sliced through the air, going straight into Alexei's forehead, and ripping out of the back of his hood at an angle.

The force of the bullet yanked his hood down, revealing his ghostly head.

"Damn! Alright, this is the last one! If you don't get this right, you will die. Shot through the heart." Reaper roared. "Longest monosyllabic word! Go! Now!"

Alexei thought for a moment, pulling his hood back up. "Strengthened."

Reaper pointed at Alexei, and a bullet ripped through the air once again. However, before the bullet could impact Alexei's chest, a figure appeared in the line of fire, a large blue shield just opening enough to absorb the impact.

"Haha! Do not worry, friend! I am your shield!" The large man called out.

"That took longer than it should've…" Another deep voice muttered.

"Who cares? We're not just here to save the Alexei kid. We're here to take down Reyes." A gruff voice grumbled, and there was a click as a gun was reloaded.

Alexei leapt out of the chair, nimbly moving around the five in front of him. Reinhardt, Winston, Soldier: 76, Bastion, and Tracer stood there, all readying for battle. "Hello!" Bastion chirped. "Thanks for the voice box repair Winston." The Omnic said quieter.

The gorilla nodded, looking at a fairly large device in his hands. "Why wasn't it faster…?" He muttered. He shook his head, throwing a handful of translocators and net bombs at Alexei and following up with a high-tech arm.

Alexei swiftly replaced the Talon-supplied arm with the new one, quickly stocking it. Jason appeared from seemingly nowhere, a burnt-out cigarette in his mouth. He tossed Alexei his sword, the one-edged blade shining in the artificial light. "You left that with me." He said, turning around and starting to walk out of the room. As he got closer to the door, Talon agents got closer to him. One agent attempted to apprehend the older man, but stopped the moment Jason pulled out a pistol. The agent was unarmed, so he backed away slowly.

Reaper huffed out a laugh. "I'm done with you. All of you. You all left me to _die_ in the ruins of the Swiss base. You left me trapped under the shell of the bomb, and several pounds of concrete on my chest." He lamented, slowly pulling a weapon from the portal in his coat. "Now you'll feel the weight of hundreds of pounds of stone and metal slowly crushing your body."

He produced a large grenade launcher from his coat, deftly loading the weapon and shooting a grappling hook up to the one window in the room, near the roof. He began firing around the walls, and explosions echoed throughout the building. The lights turned red and an alarm began going off, signifying the fall of the building. The roof began to crumble, and the walls began caving in.

Alexei swore, beginning to run to the door. He opened it, but didn't walk through. He stared at the small group of Overwatch heroes, waiting for something. "What the hell are you doing?" He asked. "Do you want to be crushed by this building?" He waited for another moment. "Go before I leave you to die."

The group ran out of the room, and paused to wait for Alexei. The metal door slammed closed and a large chunk of ceiling landed in front of it. "Alexei!" Tracer called after him. "ALEXEI!"

"GO! THIS IS MY FAULT AND I'LL LIVE WITH THE CONSEQUENCES!" His voice rang out, followed by a swear and a banging on the door. Reinhardt ran to the pile of rubble in front of the door, beginning to throw bits of it aside.

"We will free you, my friend! Do not worry!" Reinhardt called out, throwing aside a big chunk. Winston ran up to Reinhardt.

"Reinhardt, we need to go. I'm sure he can fend for himself." Winston said solemnly. "I know he was your friend but if we don't go now we will be trapped here as well."

Reinhardt looked down, turning around. "Lass uns gehen." He muttered, picking up the abandoned teleporter. He crushed the malfunctioning device in his hand, walking quickly to the exit.

(][)

Alexei looked up at the roof as it began to crumble, slamming a hand on the door once again. The warped metal wouldn't budge. He looked over his arm for a moment, noticing a new button with a worn label under it. He pressed it, using its function. He cleared his throat. "So, uh…"

(][)

Alexei frowned as he was cut off by a voice saying that the machine could not record anymore without deleting the pre-existing message.

The mercenary looked to the far wall after, watching as bits of plaster began falling in front of the window. He frowned, lowering to the ground and preparing to make a running jump to the barred window. He mentally cursed the abilities of Reaper, the villain able to turn to smoke and make his way almost anywhere.

Alexei began his sprint, leaping when he was a foot away from the cracking wall. His fingers grasped the edge of the hole in the wall, only for the plaster to crumble under his weight and give out. He grasped the bars just as he was about to fall out of reach, beginning to pull himself up.

Suddenly, the wall began to fall in his direction. He fell, having let go of the bars in his shock, and winced as the ceiling and wall fell on top of his body, the only thing left unharmed being his mechanical arm.

 **XxX**

 _The recruit's defiant yells and screams echoed throughout the building, making Reinhardt cringe. The boy must've been in major pain and denial. The older man stood from his seat, placing the book in his hands on the coffee table in front of him. He walked up to the door of the medbay, slowly pushing it open._

 _"_ _GET OUT OF HERE! ALL OF YOU!" The boy screamed, the stump of his arm wrapped in multiple layers of thick gauze. "YOU RUINED MY ARM! You… you ruined it… why…" His hysteric yelling slowly devolved into dry sobs. "I-I jus' wanted to keep Aleksandra safe…" He croaked, his voice scratchy and over-expended._

 _"_ _Kid, I-" Gabriel started, moving to place a hand on Alexei's shoulder._

 _"_ _STAY AWAY FROM ME!" He shrieked, kicking at the commander. "Stay away from me…" He mumbled, tears streaming down his face._

 _"_ _Should I sedate him sir?" A nearby doctor asked, a hand on the anesthesia syringe._

 _Gabriel placed a hand on his forehead. "Yes-"_

 _"_ _No." Reinhardt objected, walking forwards. "Do not. I wish to speak to the boy."_

 _Reyes glared at the older man. "Fine." He looked to the doctor. "If the boy acts up, inject the sedative."_

 _The doctor nodded, watching as Reinhardt approached the teen on the hospital bed. Reinhardt noticed the red marks on the boy's intact arm from where Alexei had pulled up on the bindings, attempting to break them. The Crusader took notice of the IV drip they had connected to the teen._

 _"_ _Hello, Alexei. I am Reinhardt Wilhelm. Would you like to play some chess?"_

 **XxX**

 **A/N:**

 **Reaper is so OOC and I hate it. Also some deepening of Alexei's character! Let me know how I can refine Reaper's dialogue and behavior!**


	6. Chapter 6

_Chapter 6_

Winston finished setting up the mount, sliding the scraped-up metal appendage into the stand. The arm was covered in scrapes, the paint peeling away. The internal workings were unharmed, Winston had reported earlier. There was a small button near the elbow, with a faded label under it. The label read 'Record'. There was a small red LED light by the button, on and signifying the fact that it had been used. There was another button labelled 'Play'.

Jack, Winston, Lena, Reinhardt, and Aleksandra stood in front of the limb. "Aleksandra, luv'?" Tracer began. Zarya looked at the time traveler, her eyes glistening with tears. "He was your brother. Would you like to play the recording?"

Aleksandra nodded, gently pressing the 'Play' button. A familiar voice cleared their throat.

"So uh," He started. "This is Alexei Zaryanova, codename Broadsword." Aleksandra nodded, forcing herself to not look at the gurney with a white sheet covering its occupant. "If you're listening to this, umm, I'm probably dead. Crushed under Talon's Germany base." Reinhardt wiped his eyes, his armor haphazardly sat in a nearby chair. "So, uh, Reinhardt, if you're there… I wish I coulda played one more game of chess with ya."

"Lena… You helped me through some rough times. Thanks." Lena looked up from the floor at the mention of her name.

"Jack, you taught me how to be a soldier." Soldier: 76 saluted the mechanical appendage.

"Winston, you helped me design my sword, back when we worked together." Winston adjusted his glasses, nodding solemnly.

"Ana, if you're there," Alexei began to whisper, "if you're even alive…" After the hushed bit he returned to normal volume. "I wish that-" the rest of his sentence was blocked out by the sound of falling rubble.

"Hana, you were pretty young when we met. Only a teen. Wish I coulda kicked your butt at StarCraft one more time. Well, if you aren't the best yet." Alexei chuckled.

"Jason, I don't know what to say to you, if you cared enough to listen. Well, at the very least, I wanna say that when you die, I'll welcome you to the gates of Hell myself." Alexei muttered with a dark laugh.

"Aleksandra… God, is there a lot I want to say to you. I'm sorry for blaming my amputation on you. I'm sorry for not contacting you for the past, like, five years. I want to say so much more, but I'm running out of time and I need to-" He was suddenly cut off.

"Please… Come back, Alexei…" Lena mumbled, placing her face in her hands.

Angela walked in, quietly taking the handle of the gurney and beginning to pull it away. She gently pulled it into the medbay, pulling away the sheet. He was no longer wearing his Blackwatch coat, nor was he wearing his t-shirt or jeans. His face had returned to normal, heavily scarred. His ice-blue eyes were closed. Angela smiled sadly. "You no longer bear the pain, Alexei."

Mercy gently pulled the sheet over Alexei's face once again before walking back into the main room.

(][)

 **XxX**

 _"_ _Alexei, luv'?" Lena walked around the corner of the Watchpoint warily, finding Alexei sitting on the cliff. The young man was swinging his legs, leaning back and laying his hands open-palmed on the ground behind him._

 _"_ _What's up?" He asked, a far-off look in his eyes._

 _"_ _Commander and Winston are looking for you, luv!" The young Tracer said, rubbing her arms. It was cold out and she had run out in her t-shirt and pajama pants. "How are you out here? It's zero degrees!"_

 _"_ _Thirty-two degrees. Fahrenheit, at least. Zero Celsius though." Alexei said with a small laugh, standing up and dusting his hands off on his jeans. "Why does the soldier want me?" Lena noticed that he was standing scarily close to the edge._

 _"_ _Umm… Mission briefing or something…?" Lena said with a shrug, walking closer to Alexei. "I think you should walk closer towards me. You're dreadfully close to the edge…"_

 _Alexei only walked closer to the edge, rubbing the stump of his arm. "I'm not going for a mission briefing."_

 _Suddenly, a commlink in Alexei's ear crackled to life. "Alexei! Come to the planning room ASAP!" Morrison's voice came through. "We need to tell you something!"_

 _"_ _Nah, I'm good." The young amputee responded, pulling the commlink out of his ear and throwing it into the sea behind him. He looked into the sky, watching as flashes of light flew through the atmosphere. "Y'know, Lena, my dad would always say that shooting stars are dragons, protecting the Earth and all of its inhabitants." He said, rubbing his scarred wrist on his jeans. He had the same far-away look in his eyes._

 _He stepped back a bit more, feeling the ground beginning to crumble under his weight. "Bye." He said with a small, sad smile. He leaned back, starting to fall._

 _"_ _NO!" Lena called out, her commlink still on._

 _"_ _Lena, what's going on?" Jack asked._

 _Lena leapt forwards, landing face down on the ground, quickly recovering and grabbing Alexei's hand. "Alexei jumped and I'm trying to pull him back up!" Lena said into the comm. Alexei's weight began to pull Lena down the rounded cliff corner._

 _"_ _Let me go." He said dully, his face blank._

 _"_ _No, Alexei! I won't ever let you go!" Lena called out, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. "You still have a job to do, so don't clock out just yet!" The pilot began to pull Alexei back up. By the time Lena had pulled him back to the top of the cliff, he had passed out and Morrison had come outside._

 _"_ _Let's get him inside, Lena." Jack said gently, placing a hand on Tracer's shoulder._

 **XxX**

 _"_ _Go, go, go! If you wanna beat the Omnics you gotta be fast!" The strike-commander yelled to the young Alexei. He has aged a few years since the last incident._

 _"_ _That's what you said last week, and the week before that,_ and _the week before that,_ and _the week before that." Alexei said, beginning to move faster around the course. He held a regulation pulse rifle in his hand, hooking his arm around a pillar and swinging around to hide from an attacking training 'bot._

 _"_ _That's because it's true, rookie!" Jack yelled with a laugh, crossing his arms._

 _"_ _Don't you think you're a bit hard on the boy, Jack?" A voice asked the commander, causing Morrison to turn around._

 _"_ _Gabriel, I'm only training him because you refused to." The thirty-something soldier said with a frown. Jack turned around to see the eighteen elite training 'bots sparking on the ground._

 _"_ _So, uh…" Alexei tossed the empty pulse rifle to the strike-commander. "Am I done for today? I mean, that makes, what, a hundred 'bots today? It's not two-fifty, but I think I've earned a short day, huh? I've been workin' my rear-end off for… I dunno, three years?" The amputee rubbed the back of his head with a smile._

 _Jack laughed, ignoring Gabriel's huff of annoyance. "Alright, kid. More training on Friday, 'kay?"_

 _"_ _Really? Three days? Thanks, commander." Alexei said with a small chuckle._

 _"_ _Yeah, now get outta here before I change my mind." Morrison warned, crossing his arms._

 _"_ _Wellbyethen." Alexei said quickly, not bothering to pause. He booked it out of the training room as fast as he could-which was pretty damn fast._

 **XxX**

 _"_ _So, in laymen's terms, the arm can be tweaked to lift the sword?" Alexei asked, picking up the mechanical limb that Winston was helping him alter. He connected it to his vest and shoulder, clenching the hand into a fist and opening it again. He was clearly in a fair bit of pain from connecting the nerves._

 _"_ _Yes. We stripped the old, flimsy scrap aluminum and are going replace it with thousands of small plates made from a sort of super-steel. That will keep it flexible and make it durable." Winston explained, taking the skeleton of a limb off of Alexei._

 _The young scientist gasped in pain as the prosthetic was removed, glaring at the hyper-intelligent gorilla. Winston ignored Alexei's anger, putting the limb in a small safe. "That's staying in the box until we have the resources to reinforce it."_

 _"_ _Alright, fine." Alexei said with a small smile, rubbing his eyes. "God, it's so late. Why did I decide to stay up so long? We went from designing a fairly lightweight broadsword, and ended with how we could make Jason's arm better."_

 _"_ _Get some rest, Alexei." Winston told the young soldier, sliding the locked case under his desk._

 _The amputee simply nodded, walking out of the gorilla's office and into his quarters._

 **XxX**

The first thing that the now-underfunded Overwatch learned after Alexei's death was that dying was expensive. You had to pay for a funeral, and those things are expensive. Jamison provided a suggestion to toss the body into the ocean, but that simply earned him a slap from Lena. Jack suggested a hero's funeral-namely putting the corpse in a box, putting it on the water, and setting it on fire as it floats to who-knows-where.

They didn't have time to decide, as by the next morning the body was already missing. It seemed whoever removed the amputee's body was clumsy, as several things in the medbay were knocked over, and vials of medicine were smashed on the floor.

First it was blamed on Junkrat, as the Australian demolitionist had suggested the immediate removal of the body in the first place. After a strong berating from a hysterical Lena, they gave it up, sending Tracer to her room and cleaning up the medbay.

The whole time, Zarya had locked herself in her room, only opening up when others came with food. When asked why she locked herself in her room, she would always slam the door on whoever had asked.

Aleksandra sat in her room, a month after the recovery of Alexei's body. She often heard yelling, screaming, and crying outside of her room, and in the adjacent room, belonging to Lena, though that stopped a week or two in. Zarya herself, however, stayed silent. She would simply look over an old picture of herself and her older brother.

His last words to her echoed in her mind.

" _…_ _But I'm running out of time…_ "

" _…_ _Out of time…_ "

" _…_ _Time…_ "

The one thing Aleksandra wished she could have had more of with her brother. The heartbroken Russian wished that she could turn back the clock. Unfortunately, there was no way to make a time machine- at least, no bigger than the Chronal Accelerator, which only affects those with Chronal Disassociation.

"Bwee-woo…" A voice beeped from the hall, followed by a knock on the door. Zarya heaved a sigh, standing up and slowly going over to the door, opening it to find Bastion. The Omnic was holding a tray of food in his hands. Aleksandra took the tray, slamming the door on Bastion. "BWEEP!" He called out in alarm, putting his hand in the doorway to stop it closing. He dropped a letter to the floor, leaving with a slam of the door. Zarya set the tray of food on the bed, picking up the envelope, blank except her call sign, and opening it.

 **A/N:**

 **Whoo boy. This chapter got heavy. On a different note, please review. I will keep writing this, but the chapters will come out much slower if you don't review. I would like to improve, mostly on Reaper, but I can't without your help! Review, and I'll see you next time.**


	7. Not really Chapter 7

**So uh**

 **I figure you guys wanna see some more.**

 **But I can't give it. I'm sorry. I'm currently working on an original story. You can find it on fictionpress, and I have a link to my fictionpress on my profile. Sorry.**


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